West Coast of USA to Indio

Oceano to Lompoc

 Motel was comfortable last night, but sure noisy – all the 4 x 4 pickups leaving the beach on the only road out from there, right past my motel! They all seemed to have those extra noisy exhaust pipes that were really loud even for my bad hearing. Otherwise it was OK and I had breakfast at the Rock & Roll Diner, which is almost next door to the motel – I posted a photo of the outside of the diner yesterday, but here’s one of the inside…

 

 It was chilly again this morning, but soon warmed up. I set out Highway 1 and rode for about 3km, then my bike route map showed a detour onto some back roads which led back to Highway 1. My other map showed a shorter route, so I took that one – big mistake! All was well until I hit one of those really steep local hills – not very long, but that sucker was steep – I’d take a guess at over 20% grade. With three stops to get my wind back, I made it to the top – no more shortcuts for me!
 After that it was pretty well plain sailing on relatively level roads through some major agricultural areas. I can see now why they had the vegetable warehousing and shipping in Oceano. But it was quite boring riding on bad road surfaces that had no shoulder for the most part, fast traffic and sometimes a drop-off from the road surface to the dirt/sand shoulder. It was hard to believe at times that I was on a main highway.

 

 After about 20km, I entered the town of Guadalupe and stopped for a break and to pick up a few snacks for the road ahead. Nice little place, very Mexican orientated as are many of the smaller towns that I have ridden through recently.

 

 I rode on for many miles until Highway 1 joined Highway 135 – then it was like night and day. The shoulder widened and the road surface was smooth; the hills had all been gentle apart from that first one. But I knew that I had a big one ahead as I had to turn onto Harris Grade Road – just the name implies hill! And it was one of those multi-switchback roads with no shoulder that took me up to about 1000ft from just under 300ft – quite the climb, without a break in the grade. And of course, it was multi-switchback going down too – no barriers at all at the critical corners, I had to be very careful on the way down – quite exhilarating!

 

 Obviously we made it down safely and we rejoined Highway 1, after that it was a short cruise into Lompoc – quite a large city considering the location – over 42,000 pop. But it’s close to the large Vandenburg Air Force Base and there is also a Federal Penitentiary here too.
 I had a good ride around Lompoc before checking in at my motel – it’s basically made up of Highway 1 being the main street – which is filled with multiple shopping malls, not any different than riding in the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area), where I am heading or any other larger city in the USA.
 Tomorrow was supposed to be in Santa Barbara for me, but there is “no room at the inn” so as to speak – I found out this morning that there is an Open Street Festival this weekend in SB – car-free streets in many areas – this must be a big draw for visitors and the hotels have filled up. The only places available are in the $300+ range – a little rich for a stinky cyclist avec Le Beaver! Ventura is too far a day for me, so I’ll be camping at the last available parks before Goleta and Santa Barbara – somewhere in the El Capitan area of the Santa Barbara Coast.
 I’ve got an even higher hill in the morning than the one that I rode today before my route of Highway 1 and US101 join together to enter the Santa Barbara coastal areas. I’ll be glad to get back to the coast though; riding through these agricultural areas is not really exciting nor scenic. Not much coast left though – Ventura Beach will be the last section for me.
 Temperatures were fine today in the high seventies and not much wind, so it was not too much of a sweat-fest for me as when the temps are in the eighties, but the higher temps are supposed to return in a few days.

 

More tomorrow...

AdamK and Basil, "Well, only one of us is stinky – and obviously it could not be me!"

 

Lompoc to El Capitan State Park

 At 65km it was not a long day of riding but got me as close to Santa Barbara as I could get and guarantee somewhere to spend the night. I’m in the Hiker/Biker area of the El Capitan Beach State Park in a lovely scenic location overlooking the ocean. The only problem is that the freeway and active railroad track is next to the Hiker/Biker area too – earplug night! Reminds me of Porpoise Cove Park near Squamish – that was next to the highway and tracks too.
But for one night it won’t bother me too much – I’m half-deaf anyway. 😄

 

 No other riders here yet, but I’m sure that someone will show up sooner or later.
 I wasn’t sad to leave Lompoc – not very impressed with the place – lots of vagabonds wandering around and ignorant drivers that didn’t want to give me any space on the streets; I nearly got wiped out a couple of times yesterday! And I’ll doubt that I’ll ever stay at a Motel 6 ever again – I had to pay $2.99 extra to get Wi-Fi – and flakey Wi-Fi at that! My tablet wouldn’t connect so I asked the front desk clerk to help me – all I got was a phone number from him so that ‘I’ could call tech support – I would have thought that he could have done that after charging me for the service. I phoned in anyway then had to tell them what device I had, the MAC address etc., what a rigmarole to just get connected. I’ve been booking most of my motels through Booking.com, they ask for reviews – that Motel 6 will not get a good review for me. I was offered my $2.99 back though after some thorough admonishment from me.
 Sunny and warm again with favourable winds and today was one of the few days that I can remember that I had a very good space to ride on for the whole day. But it was busy roads all day too – not too bad on Highway 1, but when that ended and we joined US101, it felt that we were on a major freeway – and we are as it the only road into Santa Barbara from the west coast. Highway 1 did have that high hill that I mentioned yesterday at 1100ft, but it was mostly on a gentle highway grade to get up there – nothing like that Harris Grade Road yesterday crossing the Purisma Hills. When I got to the top of that climb. there was a sign for a 7% descent for two miles – that was a good one! Gentle corners and almost straight down – a 68km/hr ride!

 

 A few kilometres after that run is when Highway 1 ended and we had to join the freeway – still a great shoulder to ride on though and I was just happy to be back next to the ocean again. 101 mostly runs along the coast in this area all the way to Santa Barbara – a scenic stretch for sure. The freeway has been improved many times over the years, the next photo shows an old highway bridge that was one lane only – it’s just there for posterity now at a Vista Point.

 

 I passed Gaviota and Refugio State Parks, both of which are beach parks too, either one would have been a quieter choice than where I am but I was more interested in getting as close as possible to Santa Barbara – I think it will be slow going tomorrow as much of the route to Ventura has to be on bike paths and back streets to avoid the freeway which cyclists have to leave on the outskirts of Santa Barbara.

 Onto Santa Barbara and then Ventura tomorrow – I’ve booked a nice hotel in Ventura, the end of the Pacific Coast for me and will be resting there for a couple of nights – more about that in tomorrow’s post.

 

More Tomorrow...

AdamK & Basil, "And no earplugs for me tonight I guess! – It’s okay for him – deaf bugger!"

 

El Capitan State Park to Ventura

 Today I had to perform some major navigating as much of the route had to be off the freeway and on bike paths, lanes, city streets etc.
 Leaving the campground (after a restless sleep due to traffic noise and lights from the freeway) I had to ride on US101 for about 13km before the sign that forced bicycles off the freeway at Hollister Ave. A short hill led me to the suburbia of Goleta and breakfast! After breakfast, I followed Hollister, then the bike route turned right towards UCSB (University of California at Santa Barbara) where I was supposed to make a left onto an extensive bike path that led all the way to downtown Santa Barbara. Well guess what? That road and adjacent path were all dug up and closed with no detour signs or help on which way to go whatsoever. So I rode following my nose and instincts and eventually found the elusive bike path. It was well worth finding though, as it did make a good job of avoiding any busy areas – being Sunday it was quiet everywhere too.

 

 The path ended close to the city and the rest of the route was well marked with “Coast Route” signage.

 

 So along the city streets of SB on good bike lanes heading towards the waterfront beaches. From there it was just about all on bike paths or on roads with very good bike lanes. I stopped in the small town of Summerland for lunch on a section where the route parallels the freeway – nice little town. Then the route took me through Carpentaria very easily.

 

 What a fabulous way to end my tour down the Pacific Coast – nearly all the route from SB to Ventura was next to the spectacular ocean beaches of Ventura County. This was a very nice goodbye to me from the coast – simply marvellous.

 

 At one point, the bike route mentioned the need to ride on the freeway for 8km, but an amazing bike path has been built adjacent to the freeway on one side and the bay at the other – it is really one the nicest paths that I have ridden on – it was only completed recently, hence my lack of prior knowledge that it existed – a great addition to the Pacific Coast Bike Route.

 

 After 88km today, I’m finally here! Wow!

 One more small step though before I am truly done…

Let me tell you my plans for the next leg of the trip to Indio. I never really relished riding the next section east to the Coachella Valley. My main intentions were to ride the California Pacific Coast as far as I could and riding over the Golden Gate Bridge. Riding south past Ventura is riding into the Megopolis of Los Angeles, which is less than a 100km away, not something any touring cyclist would look forward to. I met quite a few that were making arrangements to get around LA by train or other transport. So I can leave the coast satisfied that I have seen the best of the rugged California Coast from the seat of a bicycle and today’s ride capped it off in a spectacular fashion.
 Riding east to Indio would mean an elevation gain of over 3000ft over a three or four day ride, probably headwinds from the east before descending down into the Coachella Valley. That part doesn’t really bother me, but what does, is that to get there I would have to ride out of and then through three major cities and suburbs – to me that is not pleasant riding as the drivers in some of the suburbs seem oblivious to the space that cyclists require – especially the touring cyclist with panniers sticking out each side. I haven’t enjoyed riding many of the inland areas up to now – especially the suburbs – and to ride another 350km through some areas that are not scenic, questionable neighbourhoods and busy suburbia does not appeal to me. I’ve ridden and arrived safely up to now and I want to pause at a good stage. So a rental car will take me to Palm Springs Airport, where I will ride my final lap of this trip. I’ve looked forward to (and dreamt about!) riding into Indio on my touring bike – I know the roads there well and will relish my achievement with great satisfaction for that last 35km or so. For now, two days at Ventura Beach sounds like just the ticket!

 

More Tomorrow...

AdamK & Basil, "Did you see those beach volleyball ladies – wow!"